Monday, November 30, 2009

Finally the much awaited anniversary is over. So what did we do on that big day.Some news channels re-visited the horrific scenes, some others called upon a panel to discuss the anniversary. Some others made available graffiti or poster where citizens could write some messages and feel patriotic and proud. Some famous patrons assembled themselves at the Gateway of India, while others were content giving interviews about the so called spirit of Mumbai and how guests have started pouring into the Taj or for that matter the Leopold Café.

If one were to believe the unofficial reports we spend about 31 crores a year to keep Kasab in jail. And the trial keeps going on and on. Just today his lawyer was sacked. Now we would spend another 2 months finalizing his replacement.I thought the entire world saw him brandishing his AK 47. He even confessed to his crime. What more do you want to pronounce him guilty? How many more dossiers do we need to send to Pakistan. Or are we waiting for Uncle Sam to tell us Kasab is guilty.

I will tell you my idea of the anniversary, hang Kasab by the neck in full public view. Send his body and that of the other 9 slain terrorists to Pakistan and if they refuse give them a burial here. And to double the extravaganza hang Afzal Guru as well. Well, I hope people still remember his name. Because public memory is very short-lived, otherwise how could RR Patil be re-elected as the home-minister of Maharashtra within a year?

And all those people thinking am a blood thirsty, eye for an eye kind of a heartless guy, I give a damn. If anyone attacks your home, would you keep quiet. Will your reaction be the same? Why are we so not bothered? And if you call that the spirit of Mumbai then God damn you. Its just a selfish attitude. As long as it doesn’t affect me and my relatives and friends I live under the so called spirit of Mumbai.

I feel pity for the martyrs like Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan who laid down their lives fighting the enemy coz, the state and the elected leaders are their biggest enemies.So carry on writing grafitis and feel proud about it.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Its been more than a month, there has been so many attempts, but nothing saw the light of the day, nothing that I write can bring out the grief and the hollowness your loss has caused to us. It all still feels like some cruel joke, some kind of a bad dream. When I first heard it, I couldnt believe it. Someone who was always smiling, cracking his share of PJs, so full of life is suddenly no more.

Couldnt the truck driver, stop and rush you to some hospital? Couldnt the cop, instead of chasing the truck have attended to you? Couldnt the first hospital admit you? Couldnt the so called noble profession save you eventually? Couldnt you fight death a little longer? How can God even think about it? Is there really someone up there? This cannot be, how can you do this, like this fellow had his entire life infront of him. He was just 27.

Death as they say is a great leveller, we are all happy and proud one day, thinking of our achievements, sharing so many emotions thinking we rule this world, and then something like this comes up and you cannot do anything, you are bloody helpless. You feel like a loser. Yes thats exactly how am feeling all this while. Someone snatched you away from us, and we couldnt do anything. We just couldnt do anything.

I dont know if there is after life? But I want to believe in it. Coz I want to meet you, tell you how sorry Iam, how much we all miss you. Tell you that just one day before this fateful event, me and Sujith wanted to call you, but then we thought we would call you later. That day never came, the next day brought with it the sad news of your death.

I couldnt come and even see you one last time. I couldnt, I did not want to see you in that state, for me you could never be like that. The image I have of you is captured in my mind. Its your smiling face and no power on mother earth can wipe that out. Thats how I want to remember you. I want to remember all the lovely time we spent during the four years we were in college and the numerous times we met after college and ended up sloshed and called each other names.I want to remember, the card games we used to play bunking lectures, us ragging the poor first years, us collecting money from hostel to arrange booze, the numerous rides on your bike, the nights when we burnt midnight oil preparing for exams, the Mohan Lal movies we saw, fighting our lives for the tickets,our final year dance performance, our copying assignments, your last ball six which won us the match against the Civil Team, and many many more moments worth their weight in gold.

As friends I never got the chance to tell you, how special you were, how lucky I was to be your friend. As time passes the angst will lessen, the injuries will heal, but your loss will always be felt.I will meet you one day, then we will again pull each others legs, call each other names drunk and beyond making any sense, but this time I will surely tell you Vijesh how much I love you and that you have been more than a friend to me.Wherever you are, always be happy and be smiling. As for us we will continue to miss you.A bereaved friend.

PS: Vijesh met with an accident last month, on his way back from office near Marthalli Bangalore, where a truck went over him. He lay on the road bleeding for an hour before being taken to a hospital, where they refused to admit him, and by the time they rushed him to another, he was no more. Thus destiny snatched from us our friend, from a young boy his brother and from two proud parents their elder son.

Monday, October 19, 2009

I have been awfully lazy, and been suffering from bloggers' block(coined by myself). I have had several half written posts, which were deleted after some time. Finally my new found blogger friend Moo helped me with another tag. Its called the ABC Tag. Why? Find out for yourself.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

I am tagged again by Moo and it was a fun tag to begin with. Hope you have as much fun reading it like I had in posting it.

1) When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?Hmmm!! I need a Shave2) How much cash do you have in your wallet right now?Rs 3823) What’s a word that rhymes with DOOR?BORE, Funny no one who took this tag before me thought about it, may be because that’s what am feeling right now.4) Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?Bob, my best friend since school and now my neighbour, isn’t that great!!5) What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?Nokia ring tone, that’s the only decent one that my phone comes with. It’s a very high end mobile.6) What are you wearing right now?Shorts and Tee7) Do you label yourself?

Some times yes8) Name the brand of the shoes you’re currently own?Rockport and Adidas9) Bright or Dark Room?Dark room when am sleeping, otherwise a bright room.10) What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?A very interesting and spontaneous person with zero pretence and a very good blogger.11) What does your watch look like?It’s Cruiser,with a White dial and Stainless steel Strap, gifted by my bestest buddy bro Shyam. I simply love my watch.12) What were you doing at midnight last night?Enjoying my drink with Bob on the terrace of our flat.13) What did your last text message you received on your cell say?Balance in your account number XXXXXXX is Rs32.65. You can withdraw upto Rs32.65. (Believe me I have been tempted to withdraw Rs32.65, but darn the ATM doesn’t disburse cash less than Rs 100)14) What’s a word that you say a lot?SHIT15) Who told you he/she loved you last?My loving wife.16) Last furry thing you touched?My wife’s soft toy17) Favourite age you have been so far?Hmmmm that’s difficult to say, I have loved all the ages I have lived so far, basically I have had a good life.18) What was the last thing you said to someone?Don’t disturb me, am try to blog something( To my wife)19) The last song you listened to?Truly, Madly, Deeply ( Savage Garden)20) Where did you live in 1987?Kolkata21) Are you jealous of anyone?At present of Cristiano Ronaldo22) Is anyone jealous of you?Don’t know, couldn’t care less.23) Name three things that you have on you at all times?My watch, my contact lenses and my wedding ring.24) What’s your favourite town/city?This is difficult, it’s a close tie between Mumbai and Hyderabad.25) When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?Hmm I guess, it was in 200026) Can you change the oil on a car?No.27) Your first love/big crush: What is the last thing you heard about him/her?That She was Sorry!!28) Does anything hurt on your body right now?No.29) What is your current desktop picture?Bunch of tulips30) Have you been burnt by love?In a way Yes,

Phew, when I started doing this, I thought it would be pretty simple, but it was pretty tough and I know it doesn't make a good reading but then its my blog, I write what I want to, you can do the same in the comments section.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

One of my best friend Ajay got married and in my busy schedule I couldnt make a trip to attend his wedding. So I thought of making it up by calling and wishing him the next day.I was on my way back from office, and I dial in his number, and an automated voice at the other end greets me "Tata Indicom ki taraf se aap sabko swatantra diwas ki haardik subhkaamnayein, aap jis Tata Indicom upbhogta se sampark karna chahte hain, woh is samay vyast hain, kripiya line par rahiye ya fir baad main koshish kijiye"(Tata Indicom wishes u a happy Independance day, the Tata Indicom subscriber u are trying to reach is presently busy, please hold the line or call again later) I was shocked, I couldnt belive my ears, this was May, and the voice was wishing me a happy Independance day, three months well in advance. I thought there must be some mistake and I dial again, and the result is the same.There after I tried calling this friend of mine some 15 odd times, on different days and on most times, he was out of network coverage or lines on that direction were busy. Thank God I was spared of the 'Swatantra Divas shit'.

I hope all you ppl in the past month or so have come across the ad campaign for Tata Indicom, where in they take on all other network providers and claim to have the most superior mobile network coverage( The Hello Hello ad). I was seeing the ad today and I thought, the ad made such a mockery of itself. If there was any subscriber who would be so used to saying 'Hello' Hello' it would most probably be a Tata Indicom subscriber and hence the post.

Well talking about ad campaigns mocking themselves, I just couldnt help myself, but include the Sprite Kolkata Knight Riders ad campaign. ( For the uninformed KKR are at the pit of the IPL losing 11 of its 14 matches) In that particular ad, a guy has a battalion of mean looking men and SRK comes out of the blue and asks him:SRK: Yeh sab kis liye?Guy: Opposition ko harane ke liye darana padhta hain Sir.SRK:(Pointing towards the players of KKR) To phir yeh sab kis liye?Guy: Opposition ko harane ke liye Sir.SRK:Seedhi Baat No Bakwass Clear Hain!!Guy: Yes Sir.This ad used to come at all situations when the KKR would have dished out another of their uninspiring, disappointing performance and would be staring at defeat. And ad would be such a slap on the face.Some ads really backfire, but any discussion on ads cannot be complete without talking about Zoozoo's who have taken the entire country by storm by such a innovative style of marketing the products.But for those dumb ads one wouldnt appreciate the good ones.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I was pretty excited about April 16th. I would finally be able to exercise my franchise. I had only voted before in College elections. For that matter I was the polling agent representing one of the Student parties. But this was the first time I was going to vote for a Parliamentary election process. Doubling up the joy was here in Andhra Pradesh the Assembly elections were also on the same time. I was pretty excited that I was going to play a very tiny minuscule role in the selection/election of the next Prime Minister of India and the next Chief Minister of AP.

My voter Id card was made a year ago, and it still had my old address which meant that my polling booth was 22kms away from my home. And since it was peak summer and a forced holiday I wouldn’t have set out of my house for anything else, but this was something, nothing could hold me back from executing.

Now, this was the first time I was voting and I am a complete novice to as to how the entire process works. Like the college elections were pretty different, there were only 2 options and you knew the candidates personally and there wasn’t much significance either.

Now about whom to vote for in the Parliament it was an easy decision and people who really know me, would need no hints to know where my allegiances lie. But for the assembly segment, I wasn’t too sure. I did discuss with a couple of my colleagues and then in the larger interest of the state finally decided the party for whom I would cast my vote. More so because it was in alliance with the other party for which I would normally have voted.

I arrived at the Polling Booth, supposedly a High School with my friend Sumeet at about noon time. The dilapidated building had some nine rooms ( I cannot call them classrooms), broken benches, blackboards filled with cobwebs and fans, which creaked continuously.

A single Policeman was manning the entire Booth and there were hardly about 20 odd people waiting to cast their votes. I noticed except the two of us all the other prospective voters had a slip, which mentioned their name and polling booth details, while I clutched my prized voter card. I prodded my friend who went and asked whether that slip was also necessary and if yes, where to obtain the same. Much to my relief, the official told us that, the Voter id card was sufficient.

While waiting for our turn, we were analyzing the people in the queue before us, and trying to guess whom they would vote for. In about half an hour my turn came, and as I presented my Id, they validated the same and asked me to proceed to the booth.

On a table covered by cartons on three sides was the EVM. There were two such tables, one for the Lok Sabha and the other for the Assembly. I was soon done with casting my vote for the LS and I proceeded to the Assembly segment, that’s when I noticed that, the EVMs had only the name of the Candidate and his party’s symbol.

Now since I had thought of voting for a regional party, and was so sure that the EVM would contain the name of the party that I did not even bother to check the name of the candidates, and as it turned out to be I did not even remember the symbol. (Talk about being an informed young generation voter).

So here I was trying to guess the name of the person, and I tried to recollect the various posters and graffiti outside to remember the name unsuccessfully. Finally, I did something that I knew would improve my chances, I tried to eliminate the choices. Having written so many competitive exams which had multiple choices, I was good at something they called the intelligent guess. This worked on the principle of elimination of choices.

Now in a competitive exam, you have four maximum five options, here there were fifteen. Finally, the impatient that I am, I zeroed in on one and pressed my thumb to caste the vote in his favour.

As soon as I came out, I looked at the notice board which had the names of all the candidates with the party name and symbol and I was thrilled to note that, I had managed to give my vote to the right candidate.

So that was my first experience at voting. Even though in my excitement and eagerness I almost goofed up, I still am proud of myself that I was one of the 60 odd percentage of people who went and cast their vote and did their bit for the Country.

The only disappointment I have is that I have to wait for another five years to go through this entire exercise again.

I have been real lazy and have not been updating my blog for quite sometime. As some of you must have noticed, I have even broken my resolution of a post per month.Anyways I was following some blogs during this period and as a result of tags from The White Phoenix and Whiny the Moo I couldn’t keep away from my blog for long.

This was the first time I was getting tagged and what appeared to be easy turned out to be pretty tough. I racked my brains and what followed may not be great, but then that’s the best I managed right now.

Is the number of lives we all have, so live it to the fullest, at least that what I believe in doing.

Is the number of attempts I took to clear my Thermal Engineering Lab.

Is my favorite number, Don’t have any specific reason, just that I seem to like this number a lot since my childhood.

Is the number of Cities in which I have pursued my education(Kolkata, Mumbai, Palakkad and Pune).

Is the number of wrist watches I have (I wish to add on to this, I freak out on wrist watches and sunglasses).

Is the time by which I usually leave office, irrespective of whether my work for the day is done or not.

Is the number of letters in my name and for that matter even my surname.

Is the number of hours I need to sleep each night.

Is the number of maternal uncles and aunties I have.

Is my shoe size. Well, nothing else was significant enough to associate with the number 10.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

So much is being said/written about Slumdog Millionaire so I didn't want to left behind and as you all can see the deadline is fast approaching(Atleast one post per month), so why no take a dig at the most discussed topic after Kasav and Ramalinga Raju.

As I write Rahman has already won two Oscars and a 'little known before' Rasool Pookutty from God's Own Country(I also play the regional card once in a while) added one to his belt. And the 24 hour TV channels are showing their acceptance speeches ever since. So much so that every kid who is exposed to the Idiot Box knows the speech by heart and also knows that India is proud for some reason.

We have had mixed response for the movie with some liking it very very much(dont know how many switched sides after the Oscar glory) and the others bashing it. Lets take a look at what the critics of the movie said: they labelled it as a 'Poverty Porn', 'India shown in poor light','India has much more than the slums' 'This film degrades India' 'This is getting all the notice just because a westerner made it' etc etc.

So much so that some bigwigs of the Indian Film Industry started bashing the movie even before it got released in India. And adding on some statistics the Hindi and English versions of the movie did not do good in India in terms of financial numbers. I will tell you one the main reason, because it was available on everybody's thumb drives.Pirated copies of the movie was available everywhere. And it did not cater to the otherwise dumb Indian audience, it did not have edge of the seat action sequences. The protagonist gets beaten up, his girl gets stolen and all he does is go back to his normal life and participate in some quiz contest. There were no item numbers. The hero heroines werent well known and they wore pretty disgusting costumes throughout the movie. And the movie had no real songs. Such a dampener for the teeming populace which hits the movie hall every day, expecting some masala for three hours, so that he can forget the bad bad world outside;his own miseries and enjoy the money he has spent on the film ticket. It should have lots of emotional stuff like hero bashing up all the ones who comes his way, stealing his girl, dancing and singing like never before on every given opportunity, some skin show,and lived happily ever after climax.

Well this is my take on the movie, it was a good movie, its certainly not the best and I wouldnt compare it to other Oscar Winners like a Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind or the Million Dollar Baby etc. It was different, the topic was different, it was about Mumbai, the financial capital of India,one of the fastest growing economies of the world which also unfortunately houses one of the largest slums by the name of Dharavi. It showcases much more than mere poverty, it outlines the optimism, it also shows that Mumbai has developed and that the slums are now replaced by huge multifloored apartments.

So what made the movie a winner? To name a few, the movie has been shot brilliantly and the performances by the kids are a revelation. It captures the India which how much ever we may deny exists. The music by AR Rahman has been a masterpiece for over a decade now and to think that this in many ways is not his best music, is to understand that the talent we have in our midst. The movie showcases 'HOPE' the new buzzword in town, the buzzword that catapulted Obama to the reigns of power in the US. The word that keeps us all going in these troubled times. The recession and all the gloom thats prevailing, everyone could identify himself with Jamal, the hardships he undergoes(albeit it may be in a different in everyones life) and could appreciate the way he comes up trumps finally because of the experiences he gained during these hardtimes and due to dame luck and how he reclaims his love and fame.

Why dont we realise that there is so much in the movie thats Indian apart from the actors and background? It has a familiar Bollywood movie theme, boy meets girl, they fall in love, they get separated and years later they meet and reclaim each other, there is also a song and dance sequence at the end of the movie. Half the movie is in Hindi. May be its just the case of sour grapes.

And as to the argument that we wouldnt have won the Oscar or the recognition if any Indian movie director had made this movie, I have only this to say, we couldnt have made such a movie. We were bound to put in some unwanted masala somewhere in our bid to cater to the Bollywood audience and this is where lies Boyle's winning formula. He adapted a Indian story written by an Indian, shot it in the locales of India, acted by a hoarde of Indian actors but keeping in mind the audience of the West and hence the accolades.

100 plus awards is no mean achievement and here is my thumbs up to the entire cast and crew of Slumdog Millionaire. Hope we finally utilise our potential and make movies keeping in mind the World Audience.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

I know its already 13 days down, but as they say better late than never, so here am finally penning down a post as well as wishing all the readers and the people in general a very successful, healthy, joyful, love-filled year ahead.

There were so many things to write about, in the last few months, but laziness ruled the roost as I ended up postponing and never came up with anything.

New Year comes with lot of partying, celebrations, booze, and of course the most fragile thing in this world “New Year Resolutions”.

They say the best way to ensure that you keep your resolutions is that you discuss it with the people around you so that you feel ashamed that you haven’t kept your word.

Well, there are so many thick skinned people in this world and if people can’t break the promises they make to themselves, then the world would not be such a imperfect and happening place to live in.

Anyways I haven’t really made any resolutions as such for the sake of the new year, but this year I want to make some resolutions and I want to keep them as well, so I thought of making it publicly available to the entire world wide web, so that whenever people meet me am egged on to keep my promises to myself and life in general.

So here are my resolutions for this year:

Be regular on the blog, with at least one posting a month.

Be regular to the gym.

Visit at least two new places for vacations.

Try and keep in touch with friends more often at least one call per month.

Learn one musical instrument (Guitar will win this hands down).

Try and reduce my shopping spree(and that of my wife's too :) )

Improve my reading habits by reading more books.

Phew, at least that will set some things in my life in order. I have tried and made sure that each one of the resolutions are not too optimistic. With a little effort things should go through.

How successful I am in keeping them, well that only time will tell, but at least I have taken the first step forward. And as they say a good beginning is like a task half done.